


Crocodile Tears

by allgoodsaiyansdeservetails



Category: Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)
Genre: Childhood Trauma, Gen, Minor Character Death, leona isn't, thalassophobia, the tweels are having a great time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27159467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allgoodsaiyansdeservetails/pseuds/allgoodsaiyansdeservetails
Summary: A lion sunning itself on the savanna is a safe lion. There's nothing safe about ripples in the water.
Relationships: Floyd Leech & Jade Leech
Comments: 10
Kudos: 44





	Crocodile Tears

When he was young, Leona made a hobby of slipping away from his minders and waiting for them to notice. It gave him hours of time to kill. Mostly, he spent it reading or practicing his magic, but Farena could find him if he stayed indoors. His brother had an unfortunate habit of trying to rope Leona into play-fights and sports, or worse, trying to comfort him about being bad at them. Like it was Leona's fault for being almost a foot shorter and a hundred pounds lighter. Those offers, made in good faith and presented with a grin, did what the whispers could not and drove Leona out onto the savanna.

Not to hunt, barter, or socialize. That was best left to the professionals. Leona lay under trees and in the shade beneath rocks, dreaming of better days. When it was too hot to sleep, he found his way to the nearest watering hole and watched the people come and go. 

There was something hypnotizing about the footsteps, the sway of multi-coloured textiles, the idle chatter between neighbours who, a hundred years ago, would've been predator and prey. Everyone came to the watering holes for the same reason. A million stray souls united in purpose. Nobody cared about a single lion watching lazily from a distance. Why should they? No matter their title or the colour of their mane, a lion out in the open is a safe lion. Besides, there are more important things to watch out for at the water's edge.

The first time Leona saw a crocodile, he was twelve. Old enough to be getting used to living in a world of giants; young enough to seethe with bitterness every time he remembered that his head barely reached Farena's chest; wise enough to stop sharing his insecurities with his brother. Farena never had anything useful to say – he just repeated stupid platitudes like 'do your best' and 'different people are good at different things' and 'you've got a growth spurt coming, you'll be as tall as me soon enough.' Useless. Leona knew even then that no growth spurt would close the distance between them. 

It was with that mindset that he noticed something in the water. There was a log at the surface – or rather, what he'd taken for a log. It hadn't moved an inch since he'd arrived and flopped down at the base of a nearby tree hours ago. It was moving now.

The crowd at the edge of the water noticed it several seconds after Leona. That was already too late. Some of them had waded into the hole, you see – the better to scoop up more water at a time. When people began back-pedaling, the ones furthest out were trapped by those behind them. Voices rose in panic as the log surged into motion.

Leona remembers what followed in snapshots. A sudden splash. A long, narrow snout erupting from the water. A flash of teeth, like a satisfied grin. The awful, wet sound of jaws snapping around flesh. The damp gurgle of a crushed throat. And then a huge, grey creature with staring yellow eyes and a leering mouth dragged what had been a person and was now just meat back out to the deep. It dragged its meal under and disappeared with barely a ripple – a ripple, and a thick red stain on the surface. The crowd lurched back to higher ground, quiet and shaken. 

That was how Leona learned that the waves were hungry.

When he returned, Farena told him that crocodiles were just animals. Not monsters. Just hungry predators. The only reason he'd seen such an awful sight was that the crowd that day had been farmers and artisans, not soldiers or mages. None of them had the skill or the training to take on a croc, Leona included. That was all. He was safe, truly.

Bullshit. Leona had trouble sleeping for weeks afterward. Every time he closed his eyes, he'd see it: that awful, leering grin. He steered clear of standing water for weeks. Even now, he's uncomfortable around watering holes. 

It's not that he's afraid or anything. He just hates the thought of looking down and finding something in the water grinning back. That's the only reason he jumps when he wakes up to find the Leech twins standing over him. 

Floyd bursts into the loudest, most irritating laughter Leona's ever heard, because of course he fucking does. He does that thing with his eyes too – the thing where one of them squints more than the other so he looks like he's about to take a bite out of someone. Jade's reaction is more subdued. Barely. At least he has the decency to cover his mouth when he snickers. Leona reaches for his inner reserve of nonchalance, but it's too late. His hackles are already up. His claws are out. The hair on the back of his neck is bristling. He's given himself away.

“My, my, did we disturb you?”

Leona curls his lip. “Don't give yourself too much credit, Leech.”

Jade keeps his hand near his face but spreads his fingers. Teeth glitter in the gaps. “I don't recommend sleeping out here. Why don't you move closer to the fountain?”

“Why don't you?” Floyd echoes, the curve of his mouth stretching from ear to ear. 

Leona can't even look at that smirk, so he looks at the fountain instead and snorts. He wants to cross his arms. He can't. If either of these bastards makes a move, he needs to be able to bury them. “Too much noise. I can't sleep with water in the background.”

“That's a shame,” Jade says. “I find it rather comforting.” His tongue darts out when he speaks, long and red as blood.

A shudder runs down Leona's spine. He rolls to his feet as smoothly as he can and glares at them both viciously. They follow him with their pitiless eyes, still grinning. “You would.”

Floyd gasps and faux-stumbles backward, hand on his heart. “I'm hurt! Jade, what did we do to deserve this?”

Jade wraps an arm around his brother and pulls Floyd in close, eyes hooded with mock sympathy. “I don't know, Floyd. Perhaps he's simply having a bad day.” That smile widens. “Or perhaps we remind him of something. Is that it, Leona?”

Leona Kingscholar does not flee. Especially not from a pair of rail-thin fish he's destroyed in the arena. But as he walks away, he thinks of teeth bursting from beneath still water and shivers. The Leech twins don't have crocodile in their blood – the eyes are wrong, the teeth too slim, and their tails are all slick skin. It doesn't matter. Not when they look at him with the same satisfied grin.

The waves are still hungry.


End file.
